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Good news coming to us thanks to Ulrik's Asian BluRay-Guide website: publisher Arrow UK has anounced through a series of forums that a BluRay release of the original (non-3D) "Battle Royale" by Kinji Fukasaku will be forthcoming in October.
This is most welcome as this movie is a certified classic. Audiences worldwide back in 2000 were shocked by the story of a schoolclass of teenagers being forced to kill each other on an island over the course of three days. The film was based on a manga but became a hype of its own because of strong acting (the premise is not played for laughs here) and strong violence involving children. It launched the careers of several of its cast members including Chiaki Kuriyama ("Kill Bill", "Exte"), Kô Shibasaki ("The Sinking of Japan", "Dororo", "One Missed Call") and Tatsuya Fujiwara ("Death Note").
Kinji Fukasaku even started on a sequel, but he died before being able to finish it. His son Kenta took over and released the much derided result in 2003. Arrow has made no announcements about the second film, nor do they mention the current effort to release the original as an upgraded 3D film.
Anyway, the original on BluRay is good enough for me!
Sounds good - hopefully it's either a region-free BD release or there are plans on the horizon for it to get official distribution here in the U.S.
Holy Smoke's, like i been waiting for this!!
Really awesome news, can't wait!!
BRING IT!!!!
When this title was first shown on festivals it got rave reviews in the US, but also comments that no American distributor would burn their hands on releasing this title post Columbine.
High school teenagers running after each other with knives, guns and evn more brutal weapons? Absolutely unthinkable, and "Battle Royale" was seen as a typically Japanese slice of depravity like tentacle-porn.
So when Tartan UK released it on DVD, they made sure of two things:
1: it was regionfree.
2: it was NTCS
That last one especially is a kicker. NTSC is a standard NOBODY uses in the UK or in the rest of Europe! Most modern players and televisions could handle it, though... but still that release was obviously aimed at the US where the title was wanted but could not be gotten for years.
If Arrow makes this a region-B locked release they're shooting themselves in the foot in a maaaajor way. Unless region-A has already been covered / optioned by distributors in Japan, Hong-Kong or maybe the US itself. Is "Battle Royale" still considered as unreleasable in the States?
I wonder what the chances of this release not being upscaled from SD sources are? If this had already been released on Blu-ray in Japan I'd be less skeptical - but it hasn't, as far as I can see.
Minor clarification -
This film is actually based on a novel by Koushun Takami, not a manga.
However, there is also a manga based on the novel too.
good news and also bad news.
bad news because the effect used in this movie will look too fake in bluray and will not look believable